The Future of Life
The Future of Life
In the book The Future of Life, Edward O. Wilson tells us environmentalism is a large-scale lesson in sacrifice. Some people will think when humans protecting the environment, they always need to give up something. When humans need to protect an endangered species, some people will lose their money, jobs and even their home. People will think the Earth's gain is human's lost and stop to protect the environment. However, they forget humans are themselves a part of nature. Humans cannot survive without the natural environment. Wilson follows with a cogent outline of how the environmental crisis is threatening the Earth, focusing on the rapid destruction of species we have not even begun to classify. He points out that humans' rapid growth is an unnatural cause for the demise of biodiversity. At six billion, as of October 1999, the global population is reaching a breaking point. Humans spread to everywhere in the world and cause huge damage to the environment and the native species. In chapter two, Wilson tells us that the human population has an exponential growth over the past several decades. Because of scientific and technical advancement, people can have better food and health care. The result is that people are living longer and children are more likely to survive. After the industrial revolution, many countries' productivity increased rapidly. Therefore, countries can produce more food to support the population growth. The result is that the global population has reached six billion and is on the way to eight billion. Now, the world's population is growing by 200,000 people a day; within 25 years 2.5 billion people will be added to current population. Human population exceeded earth's sustainable capacity around the year 1978. By the year 2000, the population had over shot by 1.4 times the Earth's capacity.( Population Growth Rate) As a result, Earth loses its ability to regenerate; the sustainable resource become non
In the book The Future of Life, Edward O. Wilson tells us environmentalism is a large-scale lesson in sacrifice. Some people will think when humans protecting the environment, they always need to give up something. When humans need to protect an endangered species, some people will lose their money, jobs and even their home. People will think the Earth's gain is human's lost and stop to protect the environment. However, they forget humans are themselves a part of nature. Humans cannot survive without the natural environment. Wilson follows with a cogent outline of how the environmental crisis is threatening the Earth, focusing on the rapid destruction of species we have not even begun to classify. He points out that humans' rapid growth is an unnatural cause for the demise of biodiversity. At six billion, as of October 1999, the global population is reaching a breaking point. Humans spread to everywhere in the world and cause huge damage to the environment and the native species. In chapter two, Wilson tells us that the human population has an exponential growth over the past several decades. Because of scientific and technical advancement, people can have better food and health care. The result is that people are living longer and children are more likely to survive. After the industrial revolution, many countries' productivity increased rapidly. Therefore, countries can produce more food to support the population growth. The result is that the global population has reached six billion and is on the way to eight billion. Now, the world's population is growing by 200,000 people a day; within 25 years 2.5 billion people will be added to current population. Human population exceeded earth's sustainable capacity around the year 1978. By the year 2000, the population had over shot by 1.4 times the Earth's capacity.( Population Growth Rate) As a result, Earth loses its ability to regenerate; the sustainable resource become non
Cited: "Population Growth Rate" DEPweb. 2001. 6 December 2005 http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/mpdules/socail/pgr Wilson, Edward O. The future of Life. New York: Vintage Books, 2002